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Bravo, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin! Yesterday, the nation’s top doctor had the courage to say simply and starkly that mothers who breastfeed their babies need more support. In the “ Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding ,” the Surgeon General challenged all sectors of our society to support mothers who choose to breastfeed their babies. “Many barriers exist for mothers who want to breastfeed. They shouldn’t have to go it alone. Whether you’re a clinician, a family member, a friend, or an employer, you can play an important part in helping mothers who want to breastfeed.” -- Surgeon...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Whenever the federal government or state legislature proposes paid family leave for workers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately decries it as a "job killer." As Ruth Milkman, a sociologist professor who helped pass paid family leave in California joked, "If you were to pass a law saying that employees should be allowed to breathe, the Chamber would denounce that as a 'job killer'." "They are allergic to regulation," she said. "What our research has shown is that those concerns were groundless." Indeed. According to research by the University of California, Los...

This article originally appeared on New Deal 2.0 . Sunday's New York Times reported that accounting firms lead corporate America in offering workplace flexibility. Employees can reduce their hours, take the summer off, take off a few years and then return to their prior jobs... whatever they need. And the firms are committed to ensuring that flexible options don't hurt prospects for advancement. Why are the accounting firms out in front? For a simple reason: they do the numbers. It costs 1.5 times a worker's annual salary to replace a professional who leaves. So when workplace flexibility...

Across the country, the New Year means new beginnings. Here in the Golden State our former and just-sworn-in Governor Jerry Brown will bring creative and sometimes austere approaches to tackle an estimated deficit of over $25 billion . For those of us who care about health care and the social services that comprise our safety net, being prepared with our policy priorities and strategies is more important than ever. Next week, on Wednesday, January 12, many of the state’s leading health, social service and workplace advocates will come together at the California Working Families Policy Summit...

Cross posted from the Young Women's Leadership Program Blog: Words of Wisdom from Worldly Young Women As I scrolled through my newsfeed on my Facebook page this week I came across a posting written by a friend who has two young children that read, “I make $4.26 a week after daycare. Oh, the joys of parenthood.” My immediate reaction and my subsequent comment on her post read, “No, more like: Oh the joys of a society that says it values family but then doesn’t give us paid maternity leave and doesn’t create more affordable childcare options!” Ever since reading the Motherhood Manifesto (read...

Can breastfeeding, working moms expect legislation to support her lactation needs? The answer is “yes” thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed on March 23rd, 2010. Federal Health Reform and Nursing Mothers President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590, on March 23 and the Reconciliation Act of 2010, H.R. 4872, on March 30, 2010. Among many provisions, Section 4207 amends the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 (29 U.S.Code 207) to require an employer to provide a place, other than a bathroom a place, and...

Political pundits are spinning away in the wake of the elections, making guesses about what the election results say about the will of the voters. But it's too critical a time for our country to let the paid pundits have the last word. Moms (and dads!) know more than any political pundit about what's really going on across America! Let's skip the middle man/woman and tell our members of Congress directly what's on our minds. *Click here to give members of Congress the straight scoop about the most important issues for your family right now--and, if you have them, any ideas about how your...

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org I was at Rutgers University on October 19th for the "What Mothers Want" conference and it was a mamapalooza of the first order. It'd be hard to say who was the more interesting - the experts and advocates at the mic or the totally engaged and informed audience. Everybody knew motherwork was hard, vital, and made unnecessarily more difficult by the way work and family life are currently structured. Research presented let us listen to the opinions of thousands of mothers as they...

by Robert Drago and Jeffrey Hayes New data collected for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) by Precision Opinion finds widespread support across party lines, gender, race and ethnicity for policies that will assist working families and protect workers’ rights, especially for low income workers. The majority of registered voters favor political candidates who will promote policies that increase workplace protections from unfair treatment, and provide paid leave and flexibility to meet family care giving demands—and women consistently show greater support than men. “To excite...

We know the value of unions to working Americans: unionized workers make more money, have more access to pensions, receive better health insurance, and have safer workplaces. Less known but equally critical is that unionized workers also receive more generous family-friendly benefits – union members are more likely to be in workplaces that promote a healthy and viable balance between work life and home life. But what about union staff? Working Mother recently released its rankings of the 100 Best Companies for family-friendly benefits and programs, and the National Education Association (NEA...